Good and good for you: An affect theory of happiness

In the philosophical literature on happiness, happiness has sometimes been identified with subjective psychological states or conditions (feelings or sets of judgments), and sometimes with more objectively evaluable conditions of a life. I refer to these as 'good feelings' versus 'good lives' accounts of happiness, and show how they satisfy different aspects of our intuitions about the nature of happiness. This paper offers an affect theory of happiness that brings together both the subjective and objective strands of our intuitions about happiness. I identify happiness with emotions and moods, and draw on conceptions of these that show how they involve both psychological states and more objectively evaluable features of a life. Happiness on this view both feels good and is good for you.